Mechanical issue with the aircraft; BA have already offered the 50% compensation figure. Just wondering whether it's worth holding out for 100%, family of five so 1500 euros difference.

regards
Jas Gill

That's 300€ per person. For a longer version, see the EC261 thread in this Forum's Dashboard.

Many thanks for the clarification and prompt replys.

regards
Jas GIll

Compensation even with re-routing?
 

Hi everyone,

Can someone clarify something for me? I've put my circumstance in a list to make it easier:

1) Our flight was delayed by 22 hours from SFO. I chose this flight as it was an A380 flight and gave us enough time for our onwards connection.

2) Once we noticed the delay, we spent close to two hours trying to deal with BA and sort out a solution. They suggested there was a flight that was 4 hours earlier than our initial intended departure time. No other alternatives were given: it was either take this flight or the next (but it meant we lost 6 hours of the day – 2 hours calling, 4 hours earlier). But we couldn't take the delayed flight as we would have landed too late for our connection.

3) Reluctantly, we accepted the earlier flight, even though I believe the 747 is an inferior service, and our holiday time had been eaten into.

When we got to the airport, I mentioned to the BA rep that I wanted to seek compensation. But do I have a leg to stand on? It was a stressful end to our wonderful holiday. But some advice from the forum elders would be helpful. Thanks!

EDIT - bad maths initially (22 hour delay, not 26)

There is a clause in the regulation regarding earlier arrival at destination. Need to read it regarding relevance to this situation.

1) Was the connection on the same ticket or a different one? If it's the same ticket, was there not the option to go on a later service from London on the connection?
2) If the alternative was go early or go later, and had you chosen the go later (leaving out the connection issue), how late would you have been into London?

Ah, I didn't know about this. Thanks! It seems to suggest (I'm no legal expert!) that a delay/cancellation and timely re-routing results in half the maximum amount.

This is the relevant section I could find:

"Where rerouting is offered and results in the passenger arriving within two/three/four hours of the scheduled arrival time for a type 1/2/3 flight, the compensation payable is halved.

This payment is strictly a compensation for the customer's inconvenience and does not replace or form a part of either of the following two compensation categories."

Does anyone know if a delay by more than 24 hours (plus a new flight number) counts as delay or cancellation?

Hi corporate-wage-slave, thanks for responding!

1) Yes, the connection was on the same ticket. Yeah that would've been an option, I think. But the conversation didn't lead to that. We actually failed to think of all the potential rerouting options when it came to communicating with BA. It was mainly a result of being super stressed out from not being able to get through to the right person and running out of time in SF. But lesson definitely learned on that front!

2) The only later option we were presented was our initial delayed flight. We would've arrived in London more than 24 hours than initially scheduled.

OK so I've read this correctly, you arrived on time, but left more than an hour early (4 hours in fact). So this would be 600€, halved because you arrived less than 4 hours late, which is 300€. In a way, this is the Regulation working correctly: it minimised the impact to your travel plans and encouraged the airline to not delay you 22 or 24 hours. Had that happened, you would have got 600€. Articles 5.1 and 7.2 respectively. Don't get hung up on the Regulations wording in relation to delay versus cancellation, after a 3 hour delay it is regarded (mainly) as a cancellation.

[And never go to a ticket desk in an irrop without having at least 2 or 3 preferred outcomes, you sometimes need to steer rather than been steered!]

Thanks for your help. I'll send off a web form to BA.

And yes! I let down my Flyertalk education in a moment of stress. I'll make sure to remember to quickly research all possible solutions first!

Was the earlier flight actually 4hrs 5 mins earlier? If so I don't think the halving of compensation applies (defer to others more expert than I) - for the regs a small number of minutes can make a big difference!

(I'm basing this on current SFO flight timings of 16.15 and 20.20)

One set of clauses says that a re-routing more than an hour early (at this notice period) entitles you to compensation. Another set of clauses reduces this compensation by half if the arrival time - on the final sector of the ticket, hence the earlier question - was less than 4 hours late. It was actually on time. Your logic applies only if the delay to the final point was greater than 4 hours, not to the departure timings after one hour.

Just checking that did the 196min. delayed flight actually depart? If not, then you are entitled to 600€ compensation each.

Hi all

Our flight BA2757 Friedrichshafen (FDH) - LGW was cancelled on Sunday. I noticed this online about 7am and received a text about an hour later. We were booked in Club Europe. It was due to depart 11:50 and arrive LGW 12:40. It was the only BA flight that day from FDH.

I called BA and they were clueless (no advice on an alternative airport or how to get there). I suggested ZRH or MUC and the agent said costs would be covered.

We arrived at FDH (had to return rental car) a little after 9am (just as the Easyjet flight from LGW was coming in to land). No BA staff were present. I called BA again, this time the agent was even more clueless and wouldn't confirm costs would be covered to get to another airport.

We decided to make our way to ZRH & I called BA re-book us on a late flight (19:00) from there.

In the event we had a quick, easy and relatively inexpensive trip via public transport (taxi, ferry, train) to ZRH - total cost for two was about £120 and we arrived about midday.

Eventually we were put on the 13:30 departure which landed LHR 14:27.

I have put in a claim for our £120 costs but are we eligible for anything under regulation 261/2004?

To recap:
- original flight FDH-LGW due to depart 11:50 arr LGW 12:40 was cancelled.
- we caught ZRH-LHR departed 13:44 arrived LHR 14:27 (that's from flight stats, I guess we we disembarked a bit later)

Thanks for the summary, makes it a lot easier! This is a 800km trip, or thereabouts, so that is 250€, but halved because you were less than 2 hours late. You can then argue about LGW v LHR if you want to (ie. argue the case for being more than 2 hours late), but having done that very precise trip - ferry across the lake and the train to ZRH - it's actually quite pleasant and very scenic, so you did well there, in my view. They should cover the £120 on top, plus any reasonable refreshments - and there is a very nice café on that ferry! - and communication costs.

This assumes that the reason for the flight being cancelled was lack of equipment/crew, which is what I think it was. If it was weather related (etc) then it's just the £120 and right of care aspects (food, drink, communications).